Prey and a Lamb

by Lambs Prey

64.4 Digging for Diamonds

Lemon Pink came by at five o'clock that morning in the darkness before the dawn. She came under a heavy illusionary veil and a notice-me-not charm, eyes red from lack of sleep, and delivered her emergency report.

Prey sat slumped on the edge of his mattress, head hanging, ears drooping, a woolly bundle of listlessness. Twining around his front hooves, the ribbon lay. But Prey didn't see it, even as he stared straight down at it. He didn't see the length of silk, his hooves, the floorboards, or even the dull gold gleam of the hated tracer bands.

From the outside, Prey looked utterly despondent. But he wasn't.

He might've seemed stunned. He wasn't that either.

Nor was he lost, poleaxed, frozen, or defeated.

Prey was thinking. He was thinking as deeply as he'd ever done.

Look beneath the outside appearance and see the mental rather than the physical. To put it more exactly, Prey was pushing his mind to the limit. His body may have been slouching, but his brain was racing with frantic, desperate activity, travelling as fast as the fastest pegasus flier. Split in two, his mind was running in parallel in an attempt to double his planning abilities. He couldn't pay any attention to anything outside of himself, everything else was mundane.

Lemon's report. It was a disaster, a failure, a threat. He needed an answering solution and he needed it now.

Oh, Prey already knew what his answer was going to be, the end result was never in question. Only the method of its execution was.

Lemon Pink's awful report had finally reminded him of who he was. He was Prey. He might be staying within the richest capital in Equestria, with enchanted walls, Mage Towers, and others defences, and he might be enrolled in the Night Guard, surrounded on every side by soft ponies who were adverse to violence, but underneath all that he was still Prey. You never really left the jungle.

Fifty-seven years in Dreverton had been a lifetime. But he was still the same Prey who'd first been dragged kicking and screaming into his cell. A lifetime ago.

Things had changed since then. Nothing had changed since then. 

He was still himself, still Prey, no matter what he might wish. Still just 'Prey'.

Deep down he was the same lamb from the war, the last survivor of the Resistance.

Somehow, inconceivably, the ISND, Luna, Nighthawk, Screech, Scenic, Gloom, and yes, even Crimson had led him into the temptation of forgetting.

'How could I forget?'

Prey was not defeated as he sat there. He was thinking. And he was furious.

He was so so so incredibly furious. Anger sat heavy in his belly and burned like curling embers in his chest. He could taste the bitter heat in his throat with every breath. The whip scars prickled over his back. He was so angry he'd been shaking earlier. Now he'd come right out the other side. Now, he was ready to kill.

'No one steals from me.'

Prey was plotting redredredred. Why didn't any of them get it? Why did they insist on pushing him? Why? Didn't they realise the only outcome lay bathed in red, one way or another, win or lose?

'They want to do this? They want to push me? Fine. We'll do it their way. And my way. They said it themselves; 'this means war'.'

With the most perfect cosmic timing, fate chose this exact moment to stick its big nose of destiny into Prey's business, and decide; 'Yes. My time is now.'

The hollow thump of someone knocking on the front door drifted down the corridor.

Jerkily, Prey raised his head. Now? Some fool had to come calling right now? Did they WANT to die? If so, all they needed to do was ask, and they would receive.

Almost without conscious input, Prey's legs got up and walked him over to his door. The ribbon was carried wrapped around his hoof, like a coiled adder. Who was at the front door? Which blithe, unaware, foolish idiot was asking to die?

Another courier? The post mare? That meddling pest Strange Happenstance? Another unwanted messenger from Nighthawk? Or that weakling Scenic and his empathetic marefriend? If it was Saffron Swirl coming to try and befriend him like some lost puppy, Prey was going to quite probably kill her and feed her corpse to his last remaining veropede.

Prey went out into the hallway to answer the front door even as he was internally seething, fit to overflow like a boiling pot; 'GoAwayGoAwayGoAwayGoAway.'

It didn't occur to Prey to just ignore the door. If he did that, they'd just keep knocking and then Crimson would eventually come to answer the door because he was a polite stallion like that.

Crimson was injured. He needed to rest like Prey had instructed. Not get up. He should stay in bed. Not answer the door. This suicidal visitor didn't deserve to see Crimson. Prey would have to deal with them instead. So who was it?

Prey got close enough to hear the thoughts of the mystery person waiting on the other side of the door and had to stop for a few seconds to let the burst of fury pass.

'Wait. Wait a moment.' Prey had to let it pass. Had to get it under control. Prey was furious, and it was affecting his judgement. He knew that, but he still couldn't halt it. 

He should. He should stop. But he was just so furiously angry. The thieves had dared to steal from him yet again.

'I need to calm down. I need to calm down right now.'

This wasn't funny. Rage felt empowering but it was merely hollow overconfidence. Anger didn't make you stronger, it made you careless.

Prey breathed deeply, and only when the red in his head faded did he rear up to the door latch and open it.

Taffy Hopes, wearing a bright yellow cardigan and even brighter smile, beamed down at him, "Hi'ya Prey, and a good morning to you too!"

Prey didn't need this right now. In his head, he was thinking of how easy it would be to mind kill the liaison's officer right here, right now. All he had to do was reach out. So simple, a touch was all it would take.

Just a touch.

But not a flicker passed across the polite mask of Prey's face. "What are you doing here, Taffy?"

Too bad for Prey that fear and anger still turned his voice into a humiliatingly high pitched squeak.

Taffy's eyebrows shot up under her fuzzy orange fringe and she grinned, "Why, did I just hear a voice break? My my, somepony's growing up fast."

Prey swallowed down the burning taste of hot bile. 'It's not intentional, she's not doing it on purpose. She's just a typical pony. Arrogant, intrusive, nosey, and overly cheerful.' He repeated in his head.

Prey made himself breathe evenly and enunciate each word clearly, "Not that I'm not thrilled to see you here Taffy, but seriously, why are you on the doorstep?"

"Oh, I'm just popping by everypony to drop off invitations for an out of work party on Nightmare night. See? Here's one for you guys."

Taffy's horn glowed, and her telekinesis pulled open her hoofbag, before shoving a cardboard rectangle into Prey's face.

It took every bit of what was left of Prey's rapidly degrading self control not to react violently to the sudden use of magic right over his face. If he couldn't read Taffy's thoughts, and hadn't known it wasn't an attack...

Prey refused to take the blue, glitter suffused invite from out of Taffy's aura. He silently held out his hoof and waited for Taffy to drop it. Only once she obliged did Prey read the invite, which was a lot politer than simply doing the smart thing and ripping the damned thing up.

Prey read it; 'To: Crimson Trace and Prey (Something-or-Other). Ready for some spooky fun? Great! You are hereby invited to a Nightmare Night costume party on Friday 31th October. Venue on Elm Street. Bring a friend!'

Taffy grinned, mistaking Prey's stare for interest, "I know it's a bit early, but me and the girls thought it best to start planning early. We even got together and booked a hall. We're going to decorate it, have a mini-haunted house, apple bobbing, a themed food contest and everything! Between us, we think we can probably get about two hundred ponies attending."

Prey took a breath, 'Just a single touch. It would be easy. She's so unguarded and open...'

But she would be missed.

"Thank you Taffy. The thought is... appreciated. I'll make sure to show Crimson the invite when he wakes up."

Taffy beamed, "Wonderful! I'm'a drop by Paint Spot and Carton next to give them their invites. By the by, I hope to see you all back at work soon. I've been saving a special corner in my office for all of Gloom's paperwork. I can't wait to see his face."

Taffy's smile turned a bit sad, before she caught herself and quickly hid it by smoothing out the front of her hideously bright yellow cardigan.

'-don't go ruining the mood now, Taffy girl-'

Prey just nodded neutrally. 

"Welp, cheerio till then Prey! Ta' Ta for now~" 

Prey shut the door, he didn't slam it, he shut it. He then only barely managed to stop himself from ramming his hoof into the floor. He would only hurt himself. He barely cared right now. Maybe the pain would help the flaring redredred anger. But no. The sound would almost certainly draw Crimson's attention.

So instead, he had to settle for throwing the glittery invite on the floor with an inarticulate suppressed hiss of fury, and stomping (quietly), back to his flat.

He'd almost killed Taffy just now. He'd really truly honestly considered it, and had a plan to carry it out and everything. Trick her back into the flat. Burn the body to ash with runes. He wouldn't even have regretted it.

It's not like she wouldn't have been deserving of it. Getting in his way, and being so unbearably happy and blind and rich undeservingly privileged just made Prey' blood boil.

Her only offence today was picking a particularly bad time. But that would've been crime enough in the Resistance for Torment to claw out her guts. Or for Snake to coldly cut her throat. Or for Garrow to tear off her face. Taffy didn't know how lucky she was to have walked away today. Fifty-seven years Prey had rotted away in Dreverton, and today he'd just been reminded today of what he'd been fighting against all those years ago.

Selfish ponies. Greedy landowners. Blindly ignorant Guards. The helplessness. Fire Strike and his Border Guards. Oppression and fear closing in from all sides. Being forced to participate on pain of death. The threat of agonies inflicted. Unicorns and their overpowering magical advantage.

All of those reasons and more.

And what was Taffy? She was the living personification of one of those very reasons.

Prey threw himself back onto his bed. Horrible ideas swam through the back of his head, like shadowy ripples spreading beneath dark water.

'A plan. A plan comes first to punish those who stole from me. Taffy is nothing. Forget her. Because no one steals from me.'

There would be revenge. Not balance, or justice, or satisfaction, or the righting of wrong. There would be none of that. Just anger, hate, and revenge.

Prey went over the packet of Lemon Pink's memories again. He remembered the events clearly, after all, they were part of his own memories now, but he still studied them again.

Lemon Pink had been in the Sewer's Heart, connected to the wickerwatchs web, and channeling the raw feedback through a runic processing array. It was the only way for a sane, sentient mind to make sense of the overwhelmingly huge web of twitching nerve fronds that was the wickerwatch.

She'd been down there monitoring the wickerwatch when it'd happened. And thus she was there and saw, heard, and felt the disaster as it happened.

The cause of the disaster was obvious. It was the same one which had started all of Prey's problems: The thieves.

A tremor shivered through the wickerwatch, passing up dark pipes and down twisting tunnels before arriving, after being translated, into Lemon's consciousness. The wickerwatch was just a plant, it didn't think or feel, so it was Lemon Pink alone who experienced the surge of alarm.

More tremors from out of the dark, more feedback, all of it spelling out danger as Lemon pieced sensations together into a picture.

Bodies were moving swiftly down one of the main sewer tunnels. Magic was being used, no doubt light and scanning spells. Too many of them. The thieves hadn't pushed into the sewers with this many people before, nor this fast and this aggressively. What had caused this sudden change in tactic? Merely a reliance on strength in numbers? Or did they think they'd found something and we're going all in?

'Aggressive. But what is their goal?' Lemon considered, 'The veropede? Another attempt to take the crystal cave lair? Or...'

Or perhaps they were aiming for the Sewer's Heart where she now stood alone, up to her knees in cold water, ropes of slippery wickerwatch. and less pleasent things.

Lemon Pink could feel the body heat they gave off through the wickerwatch, taste the vibrations they made in the water, and the currents of displaced air.

The group was large, Lemon could detect roughly fifteen individuals, the wickerwatch didn't allow for any more accuracy than that. As for the split between diamond dogs and ponies, she didn't know that either, just that the hoof and paw steps relayed that there were both races present.

Pushing into the sewers like this was bringing them towards her position, but again, there was no way to know which tunnels these invaders were planning to take. Perhaps they were going to turn. Perhaps they weren't. There was no way to tell. But they were advancing faster than she'd ever observed before, not carefully scanning for traps at every step like their artifact wielding scouts used to do.

Realisation; 'These tunnels are all paths they've scouted out before. Ones they knew were safe at the time.'

Reckless. Or perhaps they'd just deduced that Lemon and Prey just hadn't had the time to re-trap the sewers along every path the thieves had already taken. Especially since as before, those scouts had never traversed the same sewer tunnels twice in their search.

'It was all part of a gambit to control our response and prepare ahead for when they went all in like right now.' Lemon deduced. It was such a detached observation on her part, a sneaky deception she herself might've used, but that didn't mean Lemon wasn't afraid. Through the memory, Prey felt her heart thumping as if it were his own.

Down one tunnel, then the next the thieves pressed.

Lemon could only pick up through the feedback from the wickerwatch and plot their route once they'd already taken it. She was powerless to do anything more. The party was still descending deeper and closer.

'Worrying. But where are they ultimately aiming?' There was still no way for Lemon to tell.

The crystal cave? The veropede? Right here in the Sewer's Heart? Or a fourth, unknown objective? A one in four chance of her discovery, followed by her violent death. But Lemon couldn't do anything to stop their approach. Nor could she get the veropede moved in time, either to here or to further away. The beast might be perfectly suited to life in the dark beneath the city, but because of its size, the paths it could take were limited, and the and the paths it could take unnoticed even more so.

And if she mentally sent the veropede a command to move right now, it was almost certain to encounter the rapidly advancing thieves. Move it anyway? Have it stay put?

She didn't know. She was trapped in here as the thieves closed in.

But 'trapped' wasn't the same as helpless. She was not without defences here in the Sewer's Heart, a few key runic arrays built by Prey were set up in here, nor were the tunnels completely trap free, perhaps those would at least slow the thieves down, especially as they would be unexpected.

And of course, there was the pervading hex spread throughout the sewers wherever the wickerwatch's tendrils extended. Where it grew, so did fear, darkness, and paranoia.

Lemon couldn't do anything more. Now it all depended on the invaders' route.

Floating balls of artificial arcane light glowed. These orbs revealed dark, winding tunnels like the insides of intestines. But the magical glow was never strong enough to banish the dark all the way to the tunnels' ends. Sometimes it was a corner, a sharp bend, an overhang of shadow, but no true end was ever revealed to the raid group of fifteen people.

Water dripped. Claustrophobically tight pipes appeared at random, like portholes in a ship's side, jutting off from the main tunnels to branch into as yet unmapped paths.

The group was moving fast, not stopping for any breaks. They were on guard, tense, wary. Two unicorns were leading the group, cloaked and their faces hidden. Their light spells strained against the perpetual darkness. A gilded chestplate briefly gleamed from the gap in one of their cloaks. A blue gemstone glittered. The other unicorn just wore a full suit of plate under their cloak.

Behind them, the rest of the raid group followed in close proximity. Thirteen more of them. All people trusting in the lead two to guide them on safe paths down here in the depths of the crushing earth.

Diamond dogs snorted at the constant foul smell. Some panted. Water splashed in their haste. Careless hooves made warped echoes down the cramped tunnels. The ears and heads of both species were on a constant swivel. 

The dark pressed in close to hungrily watch their hurried progress.

One of the dogs jumped and spun with a snarl at the gaping maw of a pipe, set into the ceiling.

"What?" The lead dog demanded, claws out.

"Nothing," The other dog rumbled, "Heard wrong. Is nothing."

A cloaked unicorn, one who seemed to blur out of your line of sight even while you were looking straight at them, sent their white light floating globe up into the dark, revealing there was indeed nothing, a slimy grate covering the empty pipe.

"Keep moving. Stay together. Remember, if you lose your assigned partner for even just a second, call out at once."

The air was dead in the tunnels, unmoving as they pushed through it, almost like it had its own weight. The shadows were thick enough in places to cut, and flowed back in to claim the area as soon as the lights moved on.

It was a maze down here, even having a map and knowing exactly where they were on it.

Another tunnel came, another junction went.

"Hey, stop! That's the wrong turn. It's this intersection." Someone hissed.

"No it's not, you clod."

"Yes it is. In case you've forgotten, I've been down here before."

"And you're still wrong. Check the Nightmare damned map if you don't believe me."

"Enough." A third pony interrupted. "You're bickering like foals! What are you doing?"

"We are not-!...I, I, You're right. I was just-forget it."

"Just check the map. This place is getting to us all."

"What is hold up?" One of the dogs growled, futilely trying to hurry them up.

"Patience. If we take a wrong turn, it could be our last."

The dog subsided, but they were all feeling it. The watchful dark. The shadows. And everyone here remembered the two centipede monsters from before. What else might be down here?

Many of their members had died horrible, screaming deaths to those terrible beasts in the first ill-fated attack. They'd been so confident of success and revenge back then. So careless.

Now? Now it was dark, cramped, and tense. Every now and again, something seemed to move in the dark, oily waters. It was probably dung. Hopefully it was just dung.

"Have a bad feeling in my tail. Very bad. Like when Jonas was crushed in cave in." A greying dog muttered.

"No. No turning tail now. We so close. So close to revenge."

"Yes, revenge."

"Yes. No go back."

"Grrr."

"Finish this today."

They all meant it. Everyone here was committed. Neither half of their alliance was going back, not now. The diamond dog had said it, they were so close. Their target was so close!

But the fear was there too.

"Celestia's will be done, let's get this over with." One of the unicorns murmured, encouraging his fellows.

Onwards they pressed into the tunnels again, avoiding the stagnant, foul water running through the bottom of the pipe.

It was too bad that somehow, inexplicably, and despite having only just argued over checking the map, the lead pony somehow still took them down the wrong turn. And even worse, not one person noticed.

In the slowly encroaching dark and growing unease, one shadowy tunnel mouth unfortunately looked a lot like another.

All the sounds, vibrations, and movement fed into the wickerwatch. It 'heard' without understanding, 'saw' without seeing, as the fifteen warm blooded people travelling near it drew up short.

"Stop. This isn't right."

"What isn't right?"

"It's not familiar, none of it. It's all wrong."

"Why stop again?" A dog whispered.

"We've taken a wrong turn."

"How? Weren't you paying attention?"

"Wasn't I-? Weren't you paying attention either?"

Diamond dogs were growling in anger. They'd just been led astray by the ponies' incompetence. It was dark, it stank, and constantly it felt like the tunnels were closing in whenever they weren't looking.

One of the unicorns shoved the other, the pushed one's hoof slipping into the foul water. They yanked it back with a curse.

"You dare-? You want to go a round?"

"Stop!" The alpha dog barked sharply, making the tunnels ring.

All other noise ceased, "Stop, stop, stop. You fighting does not help. Stop it. Bad ponies. You mess up, we all die. Stop it."

There was a silence. Water dripped. The dark kept creeping closer.

"Something's wrong here." One of the hooded ponies declared, "I'm certain there's some effect tampering with our heads."

"Impossible. You've still got the anti-mind magic defence going haven't you? And besides, we're all wearing mind lock amulets too."

"The spell is still up yes, but you know as well as I there's no way to be sure against the dark, insidious nature of mind magic. We thought these traitors only had direct mind altering magic, but now it looks like we were mistaken." The same pony answered, voice disgusted.

"Oh yeah? And how are you so sure?" The other one challenged stubbornly.

"I can be sure because you just asked that very question, Crescendo. Think. Look at us Crescendo. We've crusaded alongside one another for years protecting these lands. We're all brothers. I trust you with my life, and you trust me with yours. You know I would never lie to you. So what's making you want to not believe me?"

There was a stunned silence. Some swallowed loudly.

"Y-you're right. By Celestia, how didn't I realise? I'm sorry Quarterstaff, I didn't mean any of that."

"It's fine. It's this infernal mind magic that's to blame. It, and the traitors to Equestria who sink so low as to use it." The unicorn spat.

"Something messing with our heads?" A dog growled.

"Yes, and we can't stop it. It's trying to make us turn on each other, but we can't let it win." 

"Don't give in, the mind magic is lying to you. Remember why we're here. Remind yourselves if you've forgotten, and focus on that. Remember those whom this warlock has murdered. We've got to trust one another, or all is lost." Another unicorn joined in.

People shifted, looking at each other, no doubt trying to rekindle the trust they hadn't even been aware of dying between them.

"So. What we do now then?" The alpha diamond dog rumbled, "Go forward? Go back?"

There was another pause of hesitation. Through the wickerwatch, Lemon Pink never got to find out what the answer would've been. One of the lead diamond dogs, shifting uneasily, took a step too far and strayed closer to the mouth of a tunnel intersection.

The invulnerable scout and the phasing scout had mapped out the safe tunnels, the artifact wielding duo rarely encountering any of the traps Prey'd scattered through the sewers. Such traps had been placed more as a hopeful deterrent, rather than a real defence. There was simply too much ground for him and Lemon to cover in the limited time they’d had, even not counting all the tunnels which were too narrow for a person to traverse.

Most of the traps hadn't even been of the magical variety, since runes were just too costly of a time sink for trapping anything but key choke points, and even then, Prey hadn't had the time for more than a few arrays on the most strategically important of those, like the one joining the sewers to the cave network under the mountain. 

Instead, there were spike swing traps, a couple of collapsing tunnels, a spring spear launcher, snap traps, poisoned spikes, and the like. Nothing that could hurt the phasing or invincible scout unless Prey got really lucky and caught them off guard.

It had made the thieves grow overly bold, empowered by their confidence in their artifacts. It had made them forget.

Just because the scouts had encountered so few traps, and none which posed a threat to them with their magical protections, didn't mean those same traps weren't still lethally dangerous. Or that they'd all been discovered and disarmed.

And one such trap just happened to be here.

*click*

Such a small, inconsequential sound.

Stuck to the roof of the tunnel like a limpet, the bone rot mine ruptured into a wave of bubbling green liquid.

There was only a moment to see the expanding sheet of caustic acid before it fell. There was a howl of absolute agony, barely begun, before it was cut off. The diamond dog... dissolved, down the head, neck, shoulders, chest, arms, waist, hips, thighs, upper legs, all of it! It disappeared like the bone rot was a magicians' vanishing cloak thrown over a volunteer.

A few pitted lower leg bones, still sloughing off the remnants of stringy muscle, were all that remained. It perversely remained standing for an entire stunned second, and then fell.

*Splash*

Fourteen stunned, horrified intakes of breath.

But that was not the end. The bone rot wasn't quite spent yet, it'd splattered hissing into the water at the bottom of the tunnel, floating on the surface like oil, and now the falling dog's remains drove this still active layer sloshing forwards.

"Get out of the w-!"

"Auuuroww!"

A diamond dog, a pitiable second too close and too slow in retrieving her paw, screamed. Gone. Her hindpaw was gone. Slews of skin and muscle dripped off the brittle twig of corroded bone that was all that was left.

The tunnel lit with a sudden rush of magic. A sphere of light blew over the water, flashing past the spill of bone rot and shooting back up the tunnel. Behind where the spinning orb passed, the water was dragged by magic, flowing back on itself like it was being sucked up a drain. A magical shield sprang into existence where the water had flowed, locking off the tunnel wall to wall behind a transparent barrier of shimmering blue energy.

But it was too late. The damage had been done.

The wounded dog fell to the tunnels floor, heedless of the chunks of filth left behind by the receding water, yowling in pain.

"Back, back!"

"Ahh ahh AhhH! Hurts!"

"Help her! Help Niler!"

"Shields! Light the area up! Get the medical kit out."

Screaming, more flashing magic in all colours, frantic activity. But it was still much too late for two of the diamond dogs. Or one and a half diamond dogs, depending how you looked at it. A little while later, the banished water came trickling back to lap gently against the shield, but there it was held back by the shield dam, slowly rising as the shimmering magical blockage halted its progress. However the bone rot had well and truly diluted into harmlessness by now.

Not that any of the fourteen surviving thought to test it.

Unnoticed, lodged under the blue shield, a couple of black, rubbery weed like tendrils lay squashed. In the pressing dark and strobing magical lights, it was easy to dismiss them as nothing more than exposed sewage.

Lemon Pink wasn't there, but she heard, and interpreted, and understood.

Lemon had Prey's memories, she'd come into existence from out of them. And so she could understand what the thieves were experiencing right now. How often had Prey seen the same in the Deeper Green?

Thus, she knew what the surviving members of the raiding party were thinking and feeling.

Whether on an innocuous game trail in the humid jungle which suddenly turned into a yawning pit filled with poisoned spikes, or contained within the dark tunnels of a sewer, the stunned shock of the survivors was all the same.

They bunched up defensively together, froze, held their breath, waited for the other horseshoe to drop.

Prey's weapon of both choice and necessity had been fear. That'd been how he'd combated the Border Guard. Fear. To the victim, it was over quickly if they were lucky. But to the survivors, who'd just witnessed one of their number cruelly snatched away, the fear the incident installed would last forever.

Fear. A horrible tool. Just like traps. They got inside your head. Made you hesitate, flinch at every step, insecure, afraid, second and third guess yourself.

Traps weren't an enemy you could take the fight to. They were things, not people. You couldn't get revenge on a trap, and the person who'd set it was long gone.

You couldn't fight traps, only avoid them in time.

Or not. Like the most recently deceased diamond dog.

'Adequately acceptable. That has bloodied their nose.' Lemon thought, 'They will slow down now, or possibly even pull out of the sewers entirely-'

"I've had it. I'm sick of these road apples. We're going in and finishing this today. That traitor horse wants to treat this like a game, huh? Then it's time we send her a message."

The voice came from the armoured unicorn, filled with burning anger, rage, hate, but also steely resolve and control. It was the voice of a calm person pushed beyond their limit. 

"Enough is enough. This. Is. War. No more holding back. No more conserving our strength. We're using everything."

"Every-?"

"Everything. All of the artifacts. If anypony can wield them, then they can use it. I'm authorising the use of any and all of the relics from the vaults. Even the forbidden vault. Selenia's Pincushion still has one charge left, right? We're even taking that."

Sharp intakes of breath, protests, "That's too far. The cost-"

"I'm authorising it. I'll take responsibility if anything is lost. I'm aware of the risks, but this has gone too far. This is war.  We're ending this. This heretic has murdered for the last time!"

Quiet, then solemn agreement came from all of the hooded ponies. They all felt the same bubbling anger too.

"Aye."
"Aye."
"This has been too long in coming."
"Yes."
"By Celestia's will."

"And what about us?" The alpha diamond dog rumbled. Lemon could sense the warm blooded bulk of the dog holding the quietly crying bitch who'd lost her hindpaw, the stump now tightly bandaged. The rest of the pack was crowded around, pressing in close to comfort her.

"We're finishing this." The lead unicorn repeated, voice iron. "We're sending a message, or making a challenge, call it what you will."

Then the voice turned sorrowful, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have led you in here. I thought together we could at least manage... But that doesn't matter now. The plan has changed. Only Hammer and I are proceeding from here on out."

"Why? You said-"

"The plan has changed. We were going to try to take the traitor's lair under the mountain, but now, we're just going to destroy it instead."

"Destroy? Only two of you ponies. How you destroy crystals and stone? Can't be done."

"It can be done." The hooded figure shifted, uncomfortable, resigned, "I didn't say, but I've already brought one of the artifacts with me from our vaults."

From under his cloak, the stallion brought out an object. There was no way for Lemon to see what it was, but she had a bad feeling.

The other ponies jerked in surprise, protesting again:

"You broke the rules? It's forbidden."

"That's the Cataract of The Sun, we can't sacrifice that!"

"Did you know it would come to this all along?"

"Of course I didn't know. If I had known I would've-No. I didn't know. But I feared it might be needed. But since we're going to go all out, there's no reason to hold back."

"But the Cataract of The Sun... Two of our founders..."

"Gave their lives to prevent it falling into evil hooves. Make no mistake, they didn't die for some artifact, they died to protect lives. They willingly paid the price so others wouldn't have to. If the cost of making sure not even one more pony dies is sacrificing the Cataract, I'll gladly pay it. This is a war against evil, we cannot afford to hold back. So I'll use up the whole Cataract and blow that place to Tartarus without a second thought."

Blow up? Destroy? They were talking about the abandoned crystal cave, where Prey had so very nearly finished constructing his lair. The thieves had failed to take it on their first raid, losing many diamond dogs in the attempt, but they'd still succeeded in slaying Prey's first veropede and nearly killing the second one too. They'd also blocked off Prey and Lemon's access to their safe retreat by threatening to return at any time and finish what they'd started.

'And that's exactly what they aim to do now. No. That is an unacceptable loss. Prey will not accept it.' Lemon thought.

Losing access to the lair was one thing. If all the thieves could be slain, then the precious cave could be retaken. But having the whole place destroyed was something else entirely. The crystal lair represented hundreds of hours of work, runic arrays, defences, research, but most importantly, safety.

'Unacceptable.'

But when Lemon returned her focus, she realised with a surge of alarm that the unicorn leader and his one chosen helper had already gone ahead, leaving the others to regroup and retreat. The two unicorns were moving fast, their speed that of galloping ponies. They must be magically hastening themselves, there was no other explanation for such sudden acceleration.

'Too fast.' Lemon had no way of stopping them in time. But she had to stop them, it was imperative to her standing objectives. What resources did she have here at her disposal?

'I have nothing.'

Nothing relevant anyway. They were moving too fast for Lemon to intercept in time.

But the crystal lair was not without its own defences, as proved by how the thieves had been driven out the first time. Plus, the route the two thieves were advancing down would lead them right into a number of traps. This included a defended choke point, defended with runes and magic.

'Anticipation. They will not break through that.'

But what if they did?

No, they would not. But she was going to lose track of them soon, the wickerwatch only extended so far, and only through pipes where water flowed.

The two figures raced into a tunnel, and Lemon lost them. However, they were about to run right into a razor wire, set at neck height, coated in poison, and obscured by the dark and a simple illusion.

Lemon waited, not knowing if the trap had succeeded. She could only wait to see if they showed up again on the wickerwatch's web. Had it worked?

One minute... Two minutes....

The pair suddenly reappeared on her wickerwatch senses again, still moving as swiftly as ever, heading for the mountain and halfway to the lair already.

It was fine. Lemon Pink already knew they were shielding themselves, she hadn't really expected the near invisible razor wire to catch them out. But there were other traps yet for them to get through.

The pair went through another bone rot mine, but they emerged unscathed from the blast of corrosive liquid. The blinding splinter trap didn't stop them either. Neither did the next bone rot mine. Not even dropping a chunk of the tunnel on their heads, weighing at least a quarter of a tonne, was enough. They had artifacts, and the ability to ignore solid matter or shrug off magic.

'Anxiety. But the runic defences will be enough. Those are not merely physical threats.'

The ones the thieves were about to plough into could rupture internal organs without ever touching the skin, freeze the mind, make the eyeballs burst, and disrupt even ambient magic. It would catch them completely off guard and then kill them. It was near instant, and there would be no time to react.

Lemon waited. She only had a wickerwatch tendril right at the end of the tunnel, so she only had distant vibrations, faint heat, and echoing sounds to work out what was happening.

A pause. Silence. Then a huge flare of white magic. A shout was carried through the wickerwatch to Lemon's mind; "Aegis of the Sun, Guard my Light!" 

Shadows bled backwards as they were scoured away. The radiance blasted through the tunnels, grating vibrations making the air shake. The white radiance grew in intensity, waves of pressure knocking dust from the tunnel roof.

It stopped. Lemon had nothing to go on. The runic arrays on the choke point had worked, right?

"Halberd of the Sun, Burn my Foes!" The distant shout of defiance gave lie to Lemon's hopes.

'No.'

This was unacceptable.

That had been the last defence. There was now nothing stopping them from diving into the mountain's tunnels and reaching the crystal lair itself.

'Helplessness. I must attempt something. This cannot be allowed to happen.'

The two thieves had punched right through the arrays with the power of this Sun Cataract artifact. And if they'd managed it at the choke point entering the mountain, why couldn't they do it again when they reached the lair?

Runes didn't fade, (if they were the right type), and could sit dormant for decades or even centuries, just waiting to activate. Just because there was no one inside the cavern didn't mean the defences weren't active, but that was only on the inside.

'The arrays to guard Prey's lair are strong. More time was invested. They will not be able to break through so easily.' However Lemon knew bitterly the difference between wishes and reality.

But it should be strong enough to keep them locked out.

'Dread. What if they don't need to enter the cavern?'

What if they could destabilize the rock from the outside somehow? Prey hadn't gotten around to the truly massive arrays needed to reinforce the rock itself. Or what if they just hurl something in through the entrance without ever venturing hoof inside? There wasn't an array against that yet, either.

Anger. Rising alarm. Panic. But most of all, it came to Lemon in a fatalistic realisation that it was all about to go horribly wrong, and that there was nothing she could do to stop it in time.

'No. No one steals from me-from Prey, and gets away with it.'

War, was it? Take what was hers, dare they?

Lemon Pink reached out with her mind, feeling the connection that was always there. It sat in her head, in her very blood. She reached across the bridge of blood and rune magic and called to the veropede.

In the pitch dark of its tunnel, the malformed veropede turned its attention towards the rest of the raiding party, who were falling back through the sewers towards safety.

Anger thumped in Lemon's heart. It felt so unfamiliar, a foreign half forgotten concept only. Where was the dispassionate, unfeeling calm? Was this really her own anger? It didn't matter. If it was too late to stop the duo from ruining the crystal lair, so she'd just have to repay the favour.

She'd take her pound of flesh in recompense.

Unheard by all but three people in the world, a righteous shout of anger and vengeance echoed faintly under Mount Canter, although one of the three only heard it via vicarious means; "Vengeance of the Sun, Burn all with Last Light!"

Then there was heat, and a roaring light blasted through the tunnels, turning the eternal dark into noonday.

It felt like there should've been a thump, a rumble in the earth's depths, or a tremor above ground at the very least so destructive was the blast. But there was none to mark the destruction of the crystal lair.

The hidden cavern was but one of many in the huge expanse of Mount Canter, and it had been situated deep enough for the surface to see, hear, and feel nothing. There would barely be a blip up on the magical geological monitoring devices above in Canterlot. It would just get written off as a cave in.

Not even the intense magical spike of destructive magic would register. Prey had settled on the crystal cavern as his lair for a reason. It was a well documented phenomenon of the vast crystal structures under Mount Canter that it blocked or messed with magical scans and teleportation.

And so there was nothing external to mark the localised destruction. Only those in the know marked down the grudge to be repaid.

The injured diamond dog was being carried by three members of her pack back through the tunnels. She was still in great pain. The four remaining hooded ponies were evenly spaced out through the group with their shielding spells and magical artifacts ready to be deployed at the first hint of danger.

They were falling back, retreating towards safety by retracing their tracks along safe paths. It should've made them feel safer. But somehow, even knowing crawling the paranoia and dread they felt was being artificially induced, those feelings were only growing stronger.

It was in the dirty water, in the foul air, in the old tunnel walls, in the lingering dark.

The feeling wasn't just getting to all of them, it had already gotten to them. They knew it, but they couldn't seem to do anything about the slowly building fear. They weren't going to break, they were sticking together and not leaving anyone behind. But bravely had never been the absence of fear.

"They done yet?" A big dog growled nervously.

The even bigger alpha repeated the question to the pony in command, "They finished yet?"

"No word yet. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't. I pray to Celestia it's the first, though." The unicorn responded tightly, attention fixed ahead.

"You can't use spell to ask them?"

"They're under the mountain. They couldn't send a message out even if they had the means on them. The crystals prevent it."

"So you not know." The alpha stated.

"No."

"Hrm. Don't like. Need to get out. This bad place and getting worse. How far?"

"Until the closest usable exit? We need to get to one clear from civilian activity. We can levitate your injured packmate up and out-"

The veropede tore into them with no warning. There was no tell-tale movement, not even a hint of the beast as the hovering light spells revealed a wide shadowy tunnel mouth. Then the next moment it was a real mouth, full of teeth.

There was a whip crack, a cut off scream, a hooked, harpoon like antenna lancing into the closest diamond dog in a blur too fast to see, and then in the exact same blur the dog, over two hundred pounds of fur and muscle, was yanked back into the jaws of death.

Howling. The packs' howls filled the echoing tunnel. Fury or terror, it was one and the same.

A head hidden under mouldy sack cloth, a body of dully gleaming segmented armour, jagged spines, rows of stabbing legs, some missing, some metal. The veropede powered out of the side tunnel in a skittering rush. It was fast, not galloping fast, but too fast to avoid in the cramped space.

But it wasn't faster than the speed thought and artifact enhanced spell casting. The first dog had died in the element of surprise. Two unicorns got up their glowing shields just before the veropede managed to drive right into the midst of them.

An arched dome of honey yellow magic, and a second flat shield of interlocking crystalline planes appeared in front of the first shield.

The crystalline shield tried to physically block the charging monstrosity. The yellow dome tried to repel it. The first defence survived, the second one didn't, but neither worked.

The veropede hit the interlocking crystalline panes and kept going, shoving the blue shield back, smashing it into the larger dome without slowing, shattering the first like yellow glass, and just kept on going.

"Oh buck!"

The monster powered right into the middle of them. Diamond dogs and ponies dove out of the way. Immediately, the veropede lashed out with its serrated antenna almost too fast for eyes to follow at the closest unicorn.

A gem encrusted clasp on the rolling unicorn's cloak flashed burning purple all by itself. The hooked antenna rebounded off the magic, then stabbed forwards again, not delayed for more than a mere second.

That second still momentarily saved the pony's life. A golden ring around the stumbling unicorn's horn glowed, and the merest breadth of a hair was all that the antenna missed by as they emergency teleported. Displaced air *Cracked* as the escapee tumbled out barely a few yards down the tunnel.

Momentarily thwarted, the veropede turned to attack the next closest target. A diamond dog looked up in helpless horror, trapped against the tunnel wall, fangs bared in a terrified rictus. There was nowhere to run down here. He howled as the veropede lunged.

It was like watching a bear trap snapping shut, all springs and loaded power too fast to stop or even see. A light spell winked out as its owner lost control. Dark liquid spattered. The hulking insect filling the tunnel was rendered in nothing but shadows for a moment.

"No more!" With a roar that sounded even over everything else, the shape of the alpha dog bounded forwards.

The leader of this surviving splinter of the diamond dog pack was huge for a member of his species, his bulging forearms and paws were scarred and broad.

He was small compared to the veropede.

He leapt onto the veropede's side, thick claws which could dig through rock sunk in and the alpha ripped. Deep gouges opened up in the veropedes carapace wherever the dog could reach, rents and tears as he furiously clawed and howled.

None of the gouges went deep enough. No acrid blood welled up.

The veropede paid the alpha no mind as it scuttled forwards to continue killing, almost crushing the clinging attacker against the tunnel walls as it did so.  

"Stand clear!"

A crackle filled the air, retina searing white and blue bolt danced. The last unicorn had thrown their cloak to the side. The hood stayed up, but on their back was now revealed a glittering set of metal, almost wing-like extensions standing straight up. Thin, ridged, far too short and immobile to match a pegasus's wings, but right now they were cracking with charged lighting.

Deadly electrical energy arced between the two erect metal wings. Then in one breath, the lightning leapt to the tip of the unicorn's horn, a white sparking ball of unstable power. The unicorn pointed their horn.

Just like real lightning, the bolt was instantaneous, and then came the thunder. Ponies and dogs stumbled against the tunnels walls and each other, blinded and deafened for a moment.

A desperate, horrible screaming howl snapped them out of it. 

"Help, Help, Help! Help me!" A diamond dog was crying, her voice choked with tears, snot, and pain.

The veropede was completely unharmed. The lightning had struck it full on, and had somehow earthed itself harmlessly without touching the veropede at all. The wounded bitch from earlier, the one who'd lost a paw to the bone rot and couldn't run, was lying beneath the monstrous centipede.

Horrified exclamations. Only now did they realise they'd dropped her! In the panic, they'd somehow dropped their weakest and most vulnerable member. How could they have done such a thing?!

The huge maw snapped down, coarse sack cloth obscuring the view.

"No!" The alpha howled, clawing and tearing for all he was worth, trying to get through the veropede's armour. 

The alpha sunk both forepaws into the veropedes armour as deeply as possible, braced himself, and heaved. Muscles strained, tendons bulged. The diamond dog roared with effort.

"RrrrrrrraahhHH!"

*C-C-C-Crack*

 The veropede's antenna curled around and lashed back to get at the alpha, as its carapace broke and the muscles attached underneath the plate were levered up.

"Protect him!"

The shout came, and magic flared. The blue crystalline shield, the only type which'd held up against the veropede earlier, snapped into existence around the staining diamond dog and the barbed antenna bounced off.

The alpha roared again, more cracks sounding out as the dog broke more carapace. The shield continued to hold under the whiplash antenna, the whip strikes not possessing enough weight to break through. The veropede coiled around like a snake, almost doubling back on itself, impossibly agile as it sought to bite or crush the dog instead.

The surviving diamond dogs flung themselves at the veropede with howls of fury and vengence, desperate to protect their alpha. The monster's killing maw was turned away, seeking the huge dog's flesh instead. The other dogs bounded into its exposed side, huge forepaw claws scrabbling on concrete and stone.

A pony yelled for them to get back, to get out of the way! But they were too incensed to listen. Or too afraid. Hot blood mixed with sewer water. There wasn't any time to think. To stop and think was to die.

A wielded stone axe sheared into a jointed leg. Stone, crude, but sharp and swung with incredible force. The severed leg ricocheted off the ceiling as the dog followed through on their swing, reared back, and hammered their axe down again.

Triumph. Failure. Rage. Terror. Dancing shadows. Magical light. 

The veropede dropped itself back to the tunnel floor to guard its less armoured underbelly. Dirty water splashed everywhere. The hooded ponies were rushing to get together, magic gathering, artifacts glowing, the one who'd teleported now back on his hooves. Where had the blurring unicorn gone? The interlocking panels of the blue shield continued to hold, protecting the alpha. The diamond dog was now tearing powerful claws into the exposed patch of flesh, claws shredding unguarded muscle fibres like putty. 

A gaping side tunnel. A heaving crush of mass. People screaming. Deafening echoes.

The alpha couldn't be pried off. The other diamond dogs clawed, bit, hacked, and stabbed. The two veropedes had decimated this pack of diamond dogs back in the crystal cave like so much chaff before the wind, but back then, the lairs runic defences had been doing just as much damage as the veropedes. None of the invaders had known what was happening back then. But it was different now.

Now they knew what their hated foe was capable of, there was only the one this time, and no burning rune magic to back it up either. The close confines of the tunnel could be a two edged sword to both sides. How swiftly the tables can turn!

The diamond dogs were doing it, they were doing damage. They were winning, they were-!

The dogs were hacking and shoving into the veropede, pressed in close. No one saw how back up the tunnel, the insectile monster anchored its rear half, dozens of legs biting down.

Abruptly, the mass of armour, teeth, and legs smashed sideways into the tunnel. The attacking diamond dogs were crushed up against the curved wall. 

The veropede's upper half and sides had backwards facing spines.

Screams, howls. Diamond dogs were strong though, they hadn't been crushed flat. If it weren't for the spines, they would've only been winded, perhaps with cracked ribs. But there were spines.

Some were impaled, fighting to get free. The lucky were only trapped, imprisoned between the spines cage like bars, or perhaps only lightly gored.

"By the Sun!" 

It had happened so fast. One second a melee, the next, the diamond dog pack crushed against the tunnel.

"Shoot it, blast them free!"

The shouted command came too late.

And now again, the close confines of the tunnel could be a two edged sword to both sides. How swiftly the tables can turn. The dogs were struggling, pushing to get free, reaching out between the cage of spines towards their most badly impaled and howling brothers and sisters. Trapped.

And then the veropede dragged itself backwards over the tunnel wall. Spines dug in and grated.

The dogs died, only having time enough to realise what was happening. Eyes went wide in horror. Rending squelching filled the sewer tunnel.

"Oh my Celestia."

One of the frozen ponies said it. It wasn't clear who. The pronunciation was quiet with shock.

The veropede's dark bulk juddered, and with a slurping sound, it pulled free of the tunnel wall. Shadows hid the details, but bits of something clung to its side and stretched stickily after it.

Some dark, body sized shapes slid wetly down to the tunnel floor. Others stayed lodged in the veropede's spines. The dogs were dead. Just like that. The alpha was gone, the crystalline shield nowhere to be seen. Had any of them survived that? Was it possible?

That first splinter pack of dogs which'd first been employed, and then murdered, by Lemon Pink to hatch this very same veropede. The first of the splinter pack's would-be avengers died in the crystal filled lair, then the rest now. They died far from home, beset by dark magic, fighting against a monster, in a filthy pipe under a pony city. Gone. A whole diamond dog pack wiped out.

Not that the thieves could know of the finer details or the dark irony of the diamond dog packs demise. All they saw was the veropede and death.

"Destroy it!"
"Bucking abomination!"  
"Light it up!"

In their deaths, the dogs had managed to buy two things at a terrible price. Space and time. The unicorns had managed to regroup out of range, behind their shields, with enough time to charge up their magic, and now nothing to stop them using it.

They'd been holding back, unable to shoot with their allies still in the way. Now there was nothing to block their rage as they let fly with their magic and artifacts.

Crackling lightning, purple fire, jagged spells, and lances of light screamed down the tunnel in one spiralling blast.

Filthy sewer water vaporized instantly. The explosion roared back up the tunnel, debris, smoke, and shrapnel carried before a rushing cloud of fire.

A silver shield filled the tunnel. The explosion bowed the shield in like a bubble. It let the scorching air blast through, and the unicorns weathered it under hastily summoned additional personal shields or just with their artifacts. The smoke, debris, and shrapnel stayed on the other side of the bubble.

The ringing echoes in the tunnel faded, and the shimmering shield dropped. Rubble and bits clattered noisily onto the floor. Hot, foul air filled the tunnel. One of them recast their floating light orb spell. It revealed that some of those bits of debris were scraps of fur and glistening red.

"Clear it." Someone ordered.

Magic swirled through the air, and the smoke and vapour was all sucked into an opaque sphere in the air. The light globe grew in strength, casting its light up the tunnel.

"Watch-!"

The veropede surged out of the smoke and down the tunnel like a tidal wave of legs, teeth, and armour. It was already nearly on top of them. It had started charging forwards before the explosion had even ended.

The veropede didn't need to be able to see to find its prey. It could hunt in perfect darkness. What was some  smoke going to do?

Prey had not made the veropede to simply be a guard dog. He had made it to be a weapon. A mage killer. All those runes and dark magic he'd performed over it when it lay broken hadn't been for nothing.

The lightning hadn't touched it.

The fire hadn't burnt it.

The bolt which was supposed to disintegrate a hole right through it had been deflected.

Other magic had simply dissipated across more surface area than it could damage.

Only the direct impact spells using real physical force had worked, but those hadn't been enough to break through the veropede's carapace.

And now it was too late and the veropede was right on top of the thieves as they stared up from their hooded faces.

"Scatter!"

The ponies dived, rolled, or teleported away, every single one of their efforts boosted in some way by one magical enhancing foci or another. But one of them was too slow.

Barbed antenna coiled about one cloaked figure and yanked them back. They screamed. Some sort of protection saved them from being torn open by the hooks and spikes, but that did nothing for the crushing force still applied.

Bones creaked. The thief's scream cut off as they choked for air.

More lightning strong enough to scar stone struck at the veropede's body followed by rolling thunder, but it deflected into the ground without even setting the sack clothing alight. The veropede constricted tighter.

A portion of the tunnel wall twisted, stone warping as something began to take shape. But a different pony beat the stone transmutation to competition. The blurring pony leapt out of a shadow right beside the veropede. Their cloak flew back, and two bladed metal tails reared up like some scorpion's. The prehensile metal tails slashed downwards onto the antenna, bladed edges a blur of glowing magic.

The one glowing blue bounced off. The one with the orange edge severed the metal antenna.

Multiple auras grabbed the dropped pony and dragged them away to safety. The shadow pony ducked and weaved for their life as the veropede lunged after them, mandibles and remaining antennae snatching at their cloak's edge.

The transmuted stone limb had finished forming, the size of a wagon, and now it swung. Slow, clumsy, but with the power of weight behind it. 

*Crunch*

More fire blasted down the tunnel. It exploded, and in the after flash of its useless detonation, the shadow pony popped up again. They tried to stab the veropede in its head with their two scorpion tails.

They hit something, the bladed tails plunged in, but the veropede didn't even slow. The daring thief almost lost a leg in recompense. Mandibles clacked just short, shearing through the cloak instead of flesh, and the unicorn darted away again, somehow vanishing.

The ponderous stone limb of the tunnel was still seeking to pin or crush the veropede's head. Magical flashes and bangs were coming fast and hard now, in almost every colour, and the rapid fire barrage didn't let up. The unicorns had managed to set up a firing platform at long range and were throwing everything they had.

The noise was deafening. The stone and mortar of the tunnel was breaking and cracking everywhere.

Through the link to the veropede, Lemon Pink made the call. Things were about to go badly wrong. The invaders had regained their footing, and were rapidly closing down all possible avenues of attack. It was only a matter of time until they tried a spell that worked and circumvented the veropede's runic defences. Most of the diamond dogs had been slain, a few yet lived, but the attempt to wipe out the whole group of both dogs and ponies as they retreated was a failure.

'No choice. Time to cut and retreat.'

The veropede didn't give a last defiant hiss or roar. It just left, scuttled backwards, able to move its legs in reverse unlike normal, non-monstrous insects.

The thieves shouted something about "It's giving up" or "Trying to run", but it was just snatches of noise over the ongoing explosions and thunder.

However not all of the dogs had been killed in the veropede's cheese grater attack. The veropede grabbed a prone diamond dog, badly injured but not yet dead, clasping the dog up to its underbelly.

A last spell deflected off the veropede's shrouded head as it withdrew. The shadows pressed in, covering its retreat. A unicorn tried to run forwards, but was stopped by their fellows. They couldn't follow. It would certainly just be another trap.

The scuttling bulk of black chitin faded into the dark, the trailing hooked end of one antenna was the last thing to disappear like a snake.

A blood stench lingered in its wake. The fight was over. The lair had been successfully found and the cavern roof collapsed, but at what cost?

'And what a cost it is. This is war.'

Prey finished reviewing Lemon's memory packet for the second time and opened his eyes. He stared at nothing in his flat. He mechanically rubbed at the light, fur hidden scarring on his cheeks. He unconsciously moved to tugging at his drooping ears. Then transitioned to twisting the ribbon.

All the while, he continued to stare at nothing. His jaw clenched.

Why did he keep failing? Why did he keep making mistakes and messing up? He should've foreseen this, he should've. If he'd just taken a moment to stop and think before all of this had happened-But no.

Lemon wasn't him despite all the similarities. She didn't see what he saw. He knew what she knew, but she didn’t know all that he knew.

Too little, too late. Mistakes, he'd made so many mistakes. Anger. Red anger. But it was no one's fault. The world isn't fair. Never fair. Nothing he could do. The world isn't fair, it's red.

'Sometimes you hook the fish. Sometimes a shark takes the bait, and hooks you instead.'

Prey was just as afraid as he was furious. He knew he was all too likely to die. These were powerful unicorns, each armed with as many powerful artifacts as they could wield without catastrophic interference. He'd heard what Lemon had overheard. Whoever these thieves were, they were people of means and vast magical resuorces. They were breaking out their full artifact arsenal with their sole intent being to hunt him down. Prey could only fearfully imagine what such artifacts might do, and in passing that unicorn had mentioned a name that frightened Prey. Selenia, the Great White Witch.

Witches weren't like mages. They couldn't do traditional, straight up spells. Witches used rituals, brewed potions, and made dark artifacts for their power. That's where a witch's power lay. And Selenia had been infamous in her day, nearly a hundred years ago. 

There was only one tiny, miniscule, sliver of light in this whole disaster.

Lemon Pink had at least managed to take a prisoner. That one unfortunate diamond dog. Lemon had already stabilised the dog. They would live, at least until Prey was done. They would know the answers to some of his questions. They didn't even need to be conscious to respond. He'd be ripping the answers directly from their mind.

A distant part of Prey told him through the crystal clear anger that he'd been the one to start all of this by creating Lemon Pink. A knife can't be blamed for the hoof that wields it. Prey acknowledged the voice, it was part of him after all. But the world isn't fair. It wasn't fair to him, or to the diamond dogs.

'There is no right choice here. Only wrong. And red revenge. There is always room for more red to spill down here in the gutter.'

Prey looked down at his hoof with its irremovable golden tracker band. His hoof was lightly trembling. Then he punched himself in the stomach as hard as he could.

Once he managed to uncurl and stop gagging, Prey pulled himself together, and left to visit the captured and prepared diamond dog prisoner.

As the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot thrived on tourism. It was the New Unicornia, the Heart of Royalty, The City of Invention, with the most famous mage towers, universities, and scholars all contained within it. And, of course, Canterlot served as the seat of power for the beloved Goddess of the Sun herself.

All ponies, no matter where in Equestria they resided, deep down held the vague plan to visit Canterlot at least once. It was just what you did if you were a pony. Seeing the shining golden jewel of a city, it was impossible for anypony not to feel uplifted and proud of what ponykind could accomplish.

As a result of this tourism, there were naturally businesses devoted to taking advantage of this boon.

There was one such travelodge near the lively train station and teleport arrival platform, seeking to cater to any such tourists who arrived. Although if a review was completely honest, this travelodge would only score three stars. It was just a bit too far away from the train station, a bit too quiet, a bit too subpar and out of the way to be anything but medium. Neither good nor bad.

It was what made the place perfect for a meeting point. It was in one of the travelodge's rooms, on the ground floor, and closest to the buildings fire escape, that they had gathered.

This room, and each room on either side of it, had been booked out for the week under a false, but also perfectly legal identity. The curtains were drawn. There was an ongoing magical silence bubble inside, but one which only blocked noise from getting out. A constant magical shield was also in effect, and at least three different alarm triggers.

After what they'd encountered, these ponies were taking no chances. Ponies and one diamond dog. The alpha. He alone was all that was left of his pack.

The huge dog sat slumped in the middle of the floor. He still smelled of death and ripe sewage.

Around him, the hooded ponies sat or stood. They were quiet. The dog had just lost his whole family, everyone and everything he'd ever loved. They'd only found the alpha an hour ago, the dog having limped back to one of the pre-arranged emergency fallback points. He hadn't said much, just looked at them with dead, tired eyes.

Of course, they'd checked him for mind tampering, as they had themselves too, but if there was anything amiss, none of them could find it.

The collapsing of the traitorous warlock's foul lair under the mountain had gone off as planned, albeit at the regrettable cost of a valuable artifact, but after what'd happened in the tunnels... It couldn't be called even a draw.

That monster, that thing had slain their allies. The diamond dogs were gone. All but one.

The gathered ponies were waiting for the alpha to speak as they slowly recovered their mana. There were eight of them here. Their whole order. All of the survivors were here. Even Nova, who wasn't completely recovered from the burning poison powder. This was war. 

They'd been making a plan of attack, grimly deciding which artifacts to use now that everything was on the table, when the diamond dog had said he had something important to say. They were waiting for the grieving dog to gather his wits.

The slumped over diamond dog finally took a deep breath and spoke. His voice was weary, but there was a burning quality to his words; "Where did you go?"

"What do you mean?" A unicorn quietly asked.

"Where you all go? Was just me. Got crushed against roof, speared, hurt. You no help." 

Here the alpha lifted one massive paw and briefly touched his legs. They'd disinfected and bandaged them the moment they'd gotten the alpha back in here. All present had seen the deep, tricking puncture wounds, but considering the damage that centipede monster had done to the other poor diamond dogs, the alpha had gotten very lucky. None of them were callous enough to say that, however. The shield Sierra had been casting over him at the time had saved the alpha's life.

"Was just me. Insect monster took Goldie. Saw it. Was carrying him. Saw it going past. I went after, had to follow. My pack, my dogs, my responsibility. Thought you were behind me, thought you were chasing after monster too. Heard Goldie howling. Looked back, but was just me. Where were you?"

The alpha looked around at the gathered, hooded unicorns. Even now, they all still wore the enchanted hoods.

"We didn't know you were still alive or that you were going after that foul creature. No pony saw you or Goldie. I'm sorry."

The alpha grunted hollowly, like he barely cared. He seemed too drained to be angry. "You didn't follow. Just me. And Goldie howling. I hurried, but wasn't fast enough. Howls faded. Had to follow blood trail. Went cold, but follow it I did. Found it."

"You found the monsters nest?"

"No. Yes. Found monster's den, but not insect monster. Found evil pink pony and tiny sheep pup. They think they so clever. Took Goldie, didn't know I followed through tunnels. But I wasn't fast enough to save Goldie. Wasn't fast enough. Wasn't, wasn't... Wasn't. Fast. Enough."

"Where? What did you see? How long ago was this? I'm sorry, but please, this could be our chance." Everypony was holding their breath.

The alpha slowly seemed to come to himself. Anger kindled in his deep black eyes, "Chance? Yes, I found a chance. A chance to kill them. Make them hurt, make them bleed like Goldie, like pack. Make them pay. Found the chance I did. Found their new secret hiding den."

"Where?" The question came from all sides.

The diamond dogs fangs gleamed in a silent snarl, "Me show you. We go, tonight."

"Tell us where to go, we'll do it," One of the cloaked figures began in concern, "You're injured, and after what's happened-"

"No! My revenge is my own! We go tonight yes, but you not leave me behind. This mine. Even if I die, I must go. I owe it to my brothers and sisters."

The lead unicorn nodded heavily, sighing, "I guess so. Celestia knows if it was me in your place... You'll have your revenge, I'll see to it. We owe you that much at least."

"Yes. Revenge. First though, I must pay respect, do the last rite. My pack, I am only one left now. I am alpha... was alpha. Must be me. My duty. Must do it alone."

The attempted raid into the sewers had taken place only two hours ago. It felt far longer in the darkness of those tunnels. The diamond dog leader had returned less than one hour ago.

Now the dog painfully pushed himself upright, wounded legs wobbling and teeth gritted. It was a testament to his sheer willpower that he stood without aid, and not a single whimper escaped his muzzle.

"You're badly injured. Let at least one of us help-"

"No!" He growled, "No. Only me can do it. Must do it alone."

The anger drained away like water, "Me alone. Must do it alone."

"We just want to help you, I promise. I understand you have to do the rites yourself, but you shouldn't be alone. If nothing else, at least we can disguise you with an illusion so you don't have to hide while in your state. Please, let us help."

The alpha just looked at the unicorn. "You are too late. Where was help when I was alone in tunnels following insect monster? No. Me do this alone. You pony. Me diamond dog."

"I swear on the Sun, if I'd known-"

"No," The dog cut him off tiredly, and began shuffling for the door, "You pony, me dog. It is the way of it. Worked together, but you value your pack over my pack. It's fine. That is how things are."

One of the ponies tried to stop him, "It wasn't like that. We were all comrades fighting side by side. Your pack was brave, their loss isn't devalued just because they weren't ponies."

"I value my pack over your pack. They are... were more important. So I must do the prayers so they may sleep in peace."

The last diamond dog raised one huge paw and brushed the stallion out of his path. The unicorn leader gave a shake of his head to another hooded pony who took a half step forwards as if to follow the alpha. The hulking dog had to crouch to fit through the door.

"I go alone. Be back soon. You stay. You be ready. For tonight we hunt."

Scenic Paint leaned into the soft shoulder of his much bigger earth pony marefriend with a smile. She beamed back and lent down to give him a proper hug and nuzzle his head. Her mane was soft, and his fur was warm.

Scenic sighed in contentment as they both sat on Carton's porch, watching the sun kiss the points of Canterlot's spires. It was rather a sappy and cliché romantic activity, but Carton Juice had suggested it, and Scenic had absolutely no complaints. He was trying to never take such moments for granted ever again. The horrible scar tracks Scenic saw in the mirror every morning under his eyes were a daily reminder of that.

Scenic hated his scars, but Carton Juice didn't care, and he only had to momentarily think of everypony else who'd been there, especially Lilly Blossom, to guiltily banish those thoughts.

He was lucky. So very lucky. His life was good. And this right here? Cuddling on the porch with someone far more kind and compassionate than he deserved? This right here was nice.

Saffron Swirl paused outside of Lilly Blossom's new apartment and took a fortifying breath. The mare model wore a very fashionable coat, sunglasses, and hat to hide her distinctive appearance. In through the front window, no lights could be seen despite the late hour.

Saffron closed her eyes for a moment, reminded herself of all the reasons she had to be content, smoothed down her coat, and, fixing on a warm smile, knocked.

She was here for Lilly, not for herself. The carrot and mushroom pie still warm in the baking tin she carried was for Lilly. Saffron had baked it herself, having grown up without use of her magic and so well used to it, unlike poor Lilly. She'd had to fight to get even the hour it took to bake the pie free from her job, usually her various agents just ordered in cuisine, but this was far more important than her job.

There is true joy to be found in helping others, and the fastest way to help oneself was to help another first.

Gloom put down the quill and blew lightly on the page to dry it. Then he folded it away into the envelope and gave the edge a lick. The envelope was addressed to his grandfather back in Clan Cilldara. A Royal Equestrian Mail flier would take all packages to a drop off point, but no further. A thestral would come by in the night and pick the bag up, keeping the location of the clan caves secret, although it was no longer such a grave matter of survival.

Times really had changed. It was only four months ago the clans had all still been in hiding. Now look at them. Back out in the open and serving their long lost, recently returned Princess of the Night.

Gloom blinked at the shadows, pausing in scratching the puckered flesh on his chest. The sun would be setting soon. He'd light a candle. One candle was a plentiful light source for a thestral.

Or perhaps he'd go out for a flight under the beautiful stars and moon. Yes, why not?

Nighthawk signed, stamped, and shoved yet another pointless paper form to the bottom of the stack. He glanced up at the clock in the dim light of the Night Guard Captain's office. A scowl appeared on Nighthawk's severe brows.

Time was wasting, and there was never enough of it. The Night Guards' workload was increasing nightly, but Princess Luna's will must be done.

Fall was coming, along with Nightmare Night. Fall would be ushering in more changes than just that however.

Prey sat on the cold earth. Boulders and fallen hunks of stone cast long silhouettes in the orange light.

The air was chill. Every so often, a shiver danced down Prey's back, and his hooves kept up an almost incessant light trembling. Neither had anything to do with the temperature.

High up the mountain above Prey, Canterlot shone and glittered, larger than life in a warm golden glow. An invitation to safety and warmth. A beautiful lie.